the greatest holiday. peace on earth and goodwill toward men. "the o'reilly factor" is next. i will see you in 2012 from iowa, i think. it will be cold oh well. >> "the o'reilly factor" is on. tonight. >> president obama, his chances to be reelected are, i would say, 50/50 at this point. would that be fair. >> i think they are a little better than that. >> we'll have more of bill's face-to-face interview with bill clinton as brand new polling shows president obama facing a tough re-election fight from any of the republic candidates. carl rove will be here to break down the numbers you know what makes barack obama happy newt newt gingrich's bagg. >> have more baggage than the airlines. >> a verbal brawl in iowa as a group aligned with mitt romney attacks newt gingrich while newt tries to keep it positive. >> from our family to yours,

merry christmas and happy new year. >> so will it work? dick morris will analyze. >> i have got a navigation system. >> now, turn right. >> so does my blackberry. but how long will would he be allowed to keep using these things? >> laura: should you be allowed to use your cell phone in your car? john stossel on what the government's role should be in keeping us safe. caution, you are about to enter the no spin zone, the and the factor begins right now. captions by closed captioning services >> laura: hi, everyone i'm laura ingraham in for bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us tonight. can a g.o.p. presidential candidate win the nomination without going negative? that's the subject of this evening's talking points memo. since former speaker gingrich's campaign rose from the dead late last month, he has been targeted by his opponents in a brutal ad war. and as the speaker conceded

last night in his appearance on the factor, the barrage has taken a toll. and consider this latest salvo from a pro-romney super pack. >> you know what makes barack obama happy? newt gingrich's baggage. newt has more baggage than the airlines. freddie mac helped cause the economic collapse but gingrich cashed in. freddie mac paid newt $30,000 an hour. $1.6 million. gingrich not only teamed one nancy pelosi on global warming but together they co-sponsored a bill that gave $60 million a year to a u.n. program supporting china's brutal one child policy. as speaker, gingrich even supported taxpayer funding of some abortions. and newt is the only speaker in history to be reprimanded. he was fined $300,000 for ethics violations by a republic congress. >> laura: today the "the washington post" fact checker gave that ad four pinocchios. on multiple fronts it distorts

the former speaker's record. on his part romney says he doesn't personally coordinate any super pac activities to which gingrich replies. >> his comments today are palpably misleading. clearly false, and politics in its worse form. >> laura: also on my radio show today gingrich accused rom any of, quote, defending the right to lie. now, while newt's frustration may be justified and as much as people say they don't like negative ards. let's face it, they work. check this out. in a rasmussen poll released today, gingrich comes n third place in iowa behind ron paul and mitt romney. another poll, kind of an outlier has him in fourth place and rick perry is ahead of him. as he continues to slide, gingrich reiterated his pledge not to go negative. he also challenged romney to call off the dogs and released this christmas themed ad in iowa.

>> is there anything more inspiring than american towns and neighborhoods brightly lit for the holidays? >> we take it as a sign of great optimism. it reminds us of the fire of freedom that burns bright in the america we love. and a prayer that the goodness of our nation will be rewarded with peace and brotherhood. >> laura: peace and brotherhood. it's a beautiful message but not exactly a campaign barn burner. does newt gingrich want to be remembered as the guy who was almost always positive or the guy who won the nomination? his campaign is getting drown out in part because he has failed to respond convincingly to the substantive attacks against him. he doesn't have a lot of money either. attacks on freddie mac, cap and trade and of course on his leadership style. if history a guide. calling out the media and other candidates for going negative isn't a winning campaign strategy. and it's not enough to have the right ideas or interesting theories. success in politics require that's throw some elbows when necessary. and gingrich showed these

skills, of course, when he led the g.o.p. to capture the house in 1994. to save his campaign maybe, just maybe he needs to go back to the future. and that's the memo. now for another point of view let's go to new york and dick morris. he is the author of the best selling children's book dubz dubs goes to washington and purveyor of the very poplar dick morris.com. so, dick, would you advise newt to abandon his stay positive campaign and start hitting back? >> the -- i think that you should remember that mike huckabee did the same thing that newt is doing now. in the face of romney's attacks in 2008, he sent out a christmas message very much like newt's and it was very, very well received in the state. of course he was a minister and that was kind of his forte. but still it was an effective move. let me just start with the negative ad that romney's people are running. first of all the freddie mac shot is essentially fair. the one child policy in china.

>> laura: on the freddie mac, dick, "the washington post" dissected this pretty specifically, the "the washington post" is not one to usually defend newt gingrich. but it said on the specific line that freddie mac caused the 2008 financial collapse mortgage if can. >> glen kessler. >> i know more about this than any of them i wrote a book on it freddie mac and fannie mae caused this. newt gingrich didn't cause it but he was on the payroll. the one child policy in china i think is a low blow because he never funded that. the abortions he voted to pay for that was in the case of the life of the mother, i think on rape or incest which is fairly farfetched. the global warming shot i think is a fair one. let's remember that when gingrich bounced back as you call it from the dead. he did not spend any time rebuilding his organization or really effectively raising money he is having 10 million

bucks of negative ads dumped on him and he has no ability to answer. is he going negative not because he doesn't have the money to compete with negatives. i do think that gingrich has one saving grace here. ron paul. i think the higher ron paul goes the more everybody is going to be focusing on paul, not on gingrich. i think that's going to help newt recover and help romney probably win. >> laura: i don't get that i know you know a lot about a lot of things. i'm looking at the numbers here. when ron paul goes up. newt gingrich goes down. mitt romney does not go up when ron paul goes up. in fact, they -- the percentage that newt gingrich is losing is not going to romney. it's going to paul. how does ron paul's rise help newt gingrich at this point? i think it's the opposite. i think newt has to start taking off the gloves on ron paul too. >> i'm saying he should. the higher ron paul goes, the more attention he gets. the more attention he gets, the more he becomes the boogie

man. and the more all the other candidates have to close in and run negatives against paul, not against gingrich. >> laura: why should romney be negative against paul? >> it helps gingrich because is he no longer the guy getting the shots. and i think that what's most likely to happen here is everybody will close in and go negative on paul because he is surging. >> laura: i don't see that. >> romney will win but gingrich may at that point rise to a second place finish, i also think that romney will win iowa and new hampshire. i think gingrich will come back in south carolina where i don't think they will vote on a primary. contenders all the way through what about rick santorum. what about rick perry? they have been doing the

retail style politicking in that state for many, many weeks. for someone like a santorum for basically the entire year. is there a possibility that the iowa caucus goers could surprise all of us on caucus day? >> it's conceivable but the iowa voters are so tactical, they are almost political consultants, you know? it's not who do i like for president, it's who is ahead, who is behind, how will my vote reverberate. the reason the romney negatives are effective not that everybody believes them he believes obama will throw them. they are worried how that will play in november of next year. i think they are very atlantic -- tactical and strategic. it's de facto a three-way race. have you got to pick one of the three as your candidates. otherwise, you are probably in their sense wasting their vote. the person that i think could come up strong is not santorum or perry but bachmann. she came in second in the tea party patriot's parole.

she is the candidate, the tea party likes the most now that herman cain is out. she is -- if there is anybody that is going to surprise us in iowa. it's going to be michelle. >> laura: michele bachmann certainly did the hard work on the ground there thanks so much. have a great holiday. >> thank you. >> laura: up next, brand new polling on how president obama matches up with possible republic opponents. karl rove will break down those numbers. more of the clinton o'reilly showdown. what would president clinton do about the situation in iran? back in a moment. i take an omeg. but to be honest, i find the omega choices overwhelming. which one is right for me? then i found new pronutrients omega-3. it's from centrum, a name i trust. it goes beyond my heart to support my brain and eyes too. and these ultra-concentrated minigels are much smaller than many others. it's part of a whole new line of supplements. there's probiotic and fruit & veggie too.

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a sizeable lead against both. that's the yowtz liar poll. last night bill o'reilly asked former president clinton about mr. obama's re-election chances. >> bill: president obama, his chances to be reelected are, i would say 50/50 at this point. would that be fair. >> i think they are a little better than that why would you

think that when most of the polls show his approvals low 40s and most people 60% feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. >> his approval is up in the last few weeks and because of this payroll tax cut where is he for it and it looks like the house may not be. >> bill: yeah, but that's transient. >> laura: joining us from austin, texas fox news analyst karl rove. i'm watching the body language. i think we need the body rang wage expert to come in. i'm watching bill clinton's facial expressions. is it just me or does he not look like he is brimming with confidence about obama's re-election chances? >> i don't think this was a tough one. yeah, bill, it's slightly better than that maybe can we talk about something else. >> laura: global initiative. >> exactly. >> laura: i don't know it's if it's from the 2008 campaign or what. he doesn't seem to be thrilled about the reelect chances. >> he shouldn't be. president obama and the real

clear average polls against a generic republic is tied 43.5 to 43.56789 if you are president obama the incumbent and you are tied with or only slightly ahead of other republic named candidates at this point, you are in trouble because those republicans don't have as strong image as you have. there is some to strongly unite one candidate. there their numbers are underplayed. you mentioned three polls. president obama is tied or dead or close to being dead even in two of them. those are the polls among registered voters. is he only ahead in the poll among likely -- among adults. we know there is a difference between polls conducted among adults where he does better, registered voters where he does worse and likely voters where he does even more badly because the likely voters who are revved up and ready to go for this election are not obama supporters. >> laura: he did well in the

hawaii gazette poll in one township he is leading by 15 points. doing really well. >> let's go back and compare how he did in that township four years ago when i suspect -- look, here is his problem. even among people like you mentioned, hawaiians, he is in trouble. take a look at these key voter groups critical many to the president's election in 2008. >> laura: i have got to get my glasses. okay. >> approval rating today among independents 38. that's down 24 points from when he got sworn into office. among seniors 39. down 23 points. among those who are middle class 41 down 26 points from where he was when he was inaugurated. midwesterners battleground states 41. down. college grawdz 43, down 26 points. look at this, young people, 48% approval down 27 points. now, he will probably win young people in this election but is he not going to win them by 68-32. look at latinos, 51% approval

down 26 points from when he was sworn in. the president is in deep trouble in these polls among key voter groups who were with him last time around and not with him this time around. he will win some of those groups but is he not going to win them by never neither margin he did last time. is he in deep do do as we like to say in next. >> laura: this is holiday. do you write that yourself or do you have someone who works with you with great penmanship write that? i could not do what you do. >> thank you for complimenting me on my penmanship. >> laura: i can't read it it's small. i can sort of see it forget the graphics department. there it is. i got it you pointed out something critical which we lose in these national polls statistical tie good news for obama. the battleground states in south carolina, in places like florida, ohio even in wisconsin where the president was poplar, iowa.

those are the states we need to start looking at when this republic field wiggleses down. >> we have reents polls in the battleground states and the president is behind. if the election were held today he would lose indiana, north carolina, virginia, florida, ohio, probably pennsylvania, conceivably michigan. likely colorado, almost certainly nevada. it could be new mexico, could be iowa. he would lose the election by a significant margin if the battleground states were to vote today. >> shepard: carl, isn't it true as we look back at what o'reilly asked clinton about the issue like the simpson bowles commission which the president appointed and summarily ignored. didn't get anywhere with it. real fiscal reform. isn't that a great substantive issue for the republicans to run on next year? >> well, the failure of the president to confront the skyrocketing debt and deficit is a big issue. particularly pointing to the, -- you know, he appointed the commission and they came out with answers. the president could have been

nixon going to china. reign in spending. take the recommendations of my commission and fight for them. instead the back of the hand and we lost the opportunity. he could be the president leading on tax reform. if his "studio b" last year would have been about fundamental tax reform we would have ended up with the bill sort of left of center like bill bradley tax reform. the economy would be stronger and his re-election chances would be better. you remember the memorable three items. quote high speed rail, quote high speed internet and countless green jobs doesn't look good in the aftermath of the solyndra bankruptcy. the president has failed to lead on these big important issues. and the republics, as long as they have a strong pro-growth agenda for next -- to get the country moving again and restore prosperity has an excellent shot to take him out in 2012. >> laura: karl, i was just kidding about the hawaiian gazette. i made that up. >> you sound sod credible. >> laura: i was going to say

like "golf digest" has a poll out or nickelodeon. >> among golfers. he will lose it and lose it badly. losing badly among golfers. i have talked to a lot of golfers. >> laura: the republicans are doing well. karl, have a merry christmas. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> laura: some conservatives are blaming republicans for the tax mess in washington. is that really fair? later, we are going to show you more of bill's explosive interview with bill clinton when we come back. how can you get back pain relief that lasts up to 16 hours?

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>> laura: in the unresolved problem segment tonight, a new "wall street journal" editorial out today says that republicans might be responsible for reelecting president obama because of how g.o.p. leaders have botched the payroll tax issue. the editorial moves on to say that republicans are allowing

obama to market himself as a tax cutter. that's great. and with us now to explain the "wall street journal's" position is stephen moore, a member of the paper's editorial board who has been covering this issue steven, i'm so glad you are on tonight. i had eric cantor on my radio show today. he said exactly what he said, he said that boehner and he met with republic leadership. >> that's right. >> laura: were very clear on friday of last week they would not agree to anything except a one year extension period. that means it's mitch mcconnell's fault because he allowed a vote to move forwarded in forward in the senate although republicans in the house wouldn't go along with it should someone lose his job over what happened here with this payroll tax hike. >> the republicans had victory on this. think, laura, where we were a couple months ago. first of all the democrats wanted the millionaire surtax

to pay for the payroll tax republicans said hell no. they won on that. the democrats backed down. week ago one outstanding issue was republicans quite correctly said mr. obama if we are going to sign your jobs bill we are going to put the keystone pipeline on. every american is for that they won on that. president obama backed down. >> laura: on friday, it was looking really rosy. republicans pushed them got a vic at this on keystone pipeline then what happened? >> well, what happened was first of all there was a miscommunication between the senate and the house. if the house was going to resolve conservatively revolt on this you wouldn't have 89-10 vote in the senate. the vast majority, only 7 republicans in the senate voted against this bill. i think what happened, i have talked to a lot of republicans in the house. this kind of revolt that ginned up on saturday when they had their conference call and boehner realized all the republicans are against. this i think it wasn't about the payroll tax cut. i think it was just a simmering resentment about the

fact that the republicans caved in on the budget. they didn't get any cuts. they didn't get any entitlement reform. spending going up and i think they were looking for a vehicle to revolt on and i think they picked the wrong fight on this one. >> laura: steven, i asked eric cantor who said look, the one year it makes more sense. there is independent analysis. jake tapper from abc wrote a piece a couple days ago. i'm sure you saw it the independent group reviewing this said two months. you can't even implement it. it's not possible to implement this kind of cut over two months. it doesn't work. >> the other interesting thing about this, laura, the president who is saying now he only wants two month extension wait a minute, his original proposal was for a year. the republicans basically in the house saying we want to give you your original position. bill, there is no question that barack obama is playing politics here. he wants -- he doesn't want this payroll tax cut to take effect so he can spend the next several weeks attacking republicans as being against the tax cut. >> laura: steven, on this

issue i must confess that i think the republicans blew it from the beginning. i don't think republicans should have agreed to this tax holiday. this is something we all need to pay into. now the republicans and the democrats pushing this are responsible for the further insolvency of social security. right? 50% of the country pays no taxes as it is. we are going to reduce the burden to pay into the social security when social security is going belly up? i don't understand this. >> we have had this tax cut in effect for a year. >> what did it accomplish. >> president obama said a year ago this would create jobs here we are a year later the full year we have had 9% unemployment. no evidence whatsoever that this, quote, tax holiday created any jobs. >> laura: we go back to that point republicans agree to this and now they are in a box. they find themselves principle on principles matter to the right but they find themselves perhaps out maneuvered. what is your prediction here? what's going to happen? the senate confer regoing to come back? get resolved or no?

>> my worry is the republicans are going to have to put their tail between their legs and surrender on this. there is only one more week before the start of the year. so, the problem for republicans right now is the liberal media and harry reid and barack obama are going to say republicans don't want to cut taxes. and had you a very good lead on this piece. it's really about posturing who is for tax cuts and who is. no how in the world do republicans allow barack obama to position themselves as tax cutter. laura, in 2013, the american people are going to see the biggest tax increase we have seen on anybody, not just rich people. all the bush tax cuts not just the ones on the rich. >> laura: i asked cantor what did you accomplish this year legislatively he basically said not enough. >> especially on the budget. $100 billion a cut. that was the high point for the republic congress was when they passed the paul ryan back in april. >> laura: unfortunately. have a great christmas and great new year. steven forbes.

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>> laura: in the personal story segment tonight, former president bill clinton is out with a new book called "back to work." in the first ever on the factor mr. clinton entered the the no spin zone. since demand is high we are taking the opportunity to bring you more. >> bill: iran is the most difficult foreign situation right now because of the nuclear threat. and no politician seems to have a handle on that because china and russia will not help in the sanctions against iran. yeah, we hurt them but not enough for them to pull back.

so the next president of the united states is going to have to deal with this nuclear thing. how would you deal with it first of all let me say there are probably lots of things that i don't know because i have failed to take security briefings. unless someone in the white house asks me too like when i went to north korea to bring those young journalists home. this is what i think about it i think when the iaea finally said iran was trying to get a nuclear weapon and seemed to be pretty far along the load. that was the biggest unkept secret in the world. anybody that had been paying attention knew that. we don't know maybe exactly when that would happen but i also know that in dealing with it is complicated. that's what the israelis think too. i mean, when you have ask yourself what are your options here, i do not believe the president should take any

military option off the table. there may be efforts right now that we don't even know about. >> bill: sure, sure. sabotage. >> bill: why won't russia and china help on this? >> i'm surprised because partly it is to maintain a sense of neutrality that they aren't totally in the american camp. >> bill: they know the danger to the world and commerce and everything else. >> it's dangerous to the russians because of all the muslims on their underbelly, many of whom have difficult living conditions and are fertile ground for. >> bill: terrorism? >> yes, terrorism. and it's dangerous for the chinese because of the muslims in their northwest in the same kind of circumstances. but the bottom line is i think the americans and the israelis and the sunni arab states that are very concerned about it i hope and presume they are all working together. i hope and presume they are

all sharing intelligence. i hope and presume they are looking at all their options. >> bill: that could be world war iii right there. israel is not going to allow it to happen. they are going to go in you know what's going to happen after that. >> mr. there may be more than one way to skin a cat. they sent them back pretty good. whoever gummed up their computer capacity and what do a lot of the americans and israelis are worried about is if you try to bomb the facility, you still got to deal with the centrifuges. their underground in an urban area. >> bill: if you take care of their structure, if you bomb them, can you basically knock out their infrastructure to deliver anything. >> yes. but most people -- but i will tell you what bothers me. just me as a citizen, knowing what i know about this, the iranians i think would be crazy. >> bill: they are. >> to ever launch a nuclear weapon because their whole

society would disappear. >> bill: they wouldn't launch it. they would give it off to somebody. >> what i think would happen is if you have all this fissile material and you give it to a terrorist group and they have a series of suitcase bombs and that could terrify and paralyze the world without creating a nuclear cloud over jerusalem. it's really a deeply troubling thing. >> bill: it is. >> okay. final question. you and president bush the elder have done a lot of humanitarian work and then you and president bush the younger rally people to give millions of dollars after the haitian earthquake. i said on the air that you guys did a noble thing. i didn't believe that that money was going to be used for anything other than day-to-day services but nothing was going to improve in haiti. what i said was correct. if you go there now, it's just as bad now as it was before the earthquake. poverty, corruption, chaos.

you are an expert on haiti. you have a foundation in haiti. i give a lot of money to haiti by the way because i have been there and i feel so sorry for those children over there. there is something very wrong in haiti. what is it? >> for 200 years haiti has been either abused and negated by -- neglected by neighbors and self-abused and self-neglect. but i have seen a change this last time that i was there and i have been working there. guy there every month. >> bill: i know. >> the money president bush and i raised we have set up to invest in businesses and we raised 20 million more dollars through colonel slim and a canadian philanthropist nic to set up a loan fund because the banks down there don't lend money to small business. we are seeing structural reforms. the last time i was there marked four months that the streets have been the cleanest

they have been in the 35 years i have been going there we have thousands of people moving out of the camps. tens of thousands more kids going to school. industrial park in the north that the united states spearheaded. a young american is going to set up a furniture factory there with 3,000 jobs. and the new prime minister of haiti, working for the president, is a haitian national who is a career employee a doctor and as good as gold. the president has one great attribute. he will make a decision. >> bill: you are optimistic about it. >> i'm more optimistic than i have ever been. it's now -- it's getting there. >> bill: okay. mr. president we appreciate you coming in. the book is "back to work." i hope you come back. merry christmas, mr. president. >> thank you. >> bill: pleasure to see you. >> merry christmas, bill. >> laura: we have posted the entire interview unedited on foxnews.com. directly ahead will president obama's class warfare strategy work? we will debate it new push to ban cell phones in your car.

is this more government intrusion tore a public safety issue? john stossel will be here.

>> laura: thanks for staying with us. i'm laura ingraham in for bill o'reilly. in the factor follow up segment tonight, president obama continues to beat the class warfare drum. he tries to paint the g.o.p. as the defender of the wealthy. last night o'reilly asked former president clinton about the issue. >> bill: what's this class warfare business the democrats are hoisting on the country. what is that we didn't see that during your administration. >> well, you know. i don't look at it as class warfare. i think if you look at what's happened over the last 30 years the middle class has lost ground. so, i don't mind paying for taxes because i think i got the benefit of the tax cuts

under president bush and in the top 1% because my income went up. that won't solve the problem. >> laura: joining us is economist ben stein and from new york david call handle a senior fellow of a progressive group. let's start with you, ben, you and i have been around and around on this issue before on taxes and what the wealthy should pay. but obama, i think, is trying to shift the debate. and maybe is he being somewhat successful now, right? not talking about what he accomplished in two and a half years. is he talking about what the republics are doing on capitol hill or median income is not going up. is this a successful tragedy for growing us out of our economic decline right now? >> absolutely not. class warfare is a bad idea. whipping up hatred against any group in america is a bad idea. the middle class has suffered terribly. the middle class has not suffered because the upper 1% have pros perfected.

the middle class have suffered for a whole lot of reasons. competition with far eastern countries. lack of education and skills. it's not the rich people's faulted that the middle class has suffered. the idea that you can somehow blame the upper class and wealthy for the problems of the middle class doesn't make any sense. there is no causal link there. >> laura: daftd an interesting statistic i had never heard before but stephen moore just shared with me. after the big tax cut kicked in for those next four years the income coming into the federal treasury was the highest in any four year period in our government's history. tax revenues went up after that tax cut. the idea if we only raise taxes on the rich things will begin to even out and there will be lollipops on the bushes and rainbows in the sky. it seems to me it doesn't really fly in the end. >> actually, steve has that statistic wrong as the percentage of g.d.p. taxes were lower under bush than

clinton. they peaked in 2000 as 20% of g.d.p. just going to ben stein's point. there is a causal connection between the pain of the middle class and how the rich are making out like bandits which is that, you know, we are seeing guts for student aid and social programs because there is not enough tax rev news. one of the reasons there is not enough tax revenues because taxes on the rich are the lowest level they have been in 60 years. that is unsustainable. >> sir, with great respect mr. callahan, the rich are paying an ever greater percentage of total government packs ta tax as it. top 1% pay something on the order of roughly 40% of total federal income tax revenue. that's not the problem. student aid has grown phenomenally since it exploded in the last 10 years even under bush has just exploded. that's not the problem. the problem is the middle class faces intense competition from china in

terms of manufacturers. big gap in education. americans are not getting as educated as they could. you are cannot blame it into the rich. they are not going into middle class people's homes at night and taking their money. they are not doing it. >> laura: i'm not trying to pick on david here. these are facts that the robert woods foundation not a political organization studied just one example in wisconsin. see zee seen a precipitous decline under people covered in employer covered health insurance. those are small businesses. we are talking about hurting the middle class while one policy that was really pushed by president obama which, of course is health care reform has resulted in fewer people in the middle class having the insurance that they were promised to have. struggling before but really struggling now. that's also hurting the middle class. >> that obama isn't going into

effect 2014. >> laura: start seeing the tags. >> warfare issue i would agree with what warren buffet said. yeah there is class warfare it's been waged from top down. politics is about who gets. what the way to get what you in the politics is to hire lobbyists and make campaign donations the wealthy have the mope to do that the middle class don't have the means to compete. we see all this money for lobbying, and campaign donations. it shouldn't be a surprise that there is all these loopholes in the tax code and that a lot of corporations pay no taxes that a lot of wealthy people pay no taxes. >> sir, sir. >> recently released that found a quarter of all millionaires paid lower taxes than your typical middle class family. >> sir, with great respect, sir, mr. callahan, with great respect, the overwhelming majority of millionaire contributions go to the democrats. 90%. in the last presidential election 90% of the million dollars and up contributions were democrats.

>> both parties have been complicit in this top down class warfare. the wealthy are overwhelmingly democrats. >> laura: we should also remember two thirds, three quarters of the upper income people above a million dollars, those are business owners and investors, right? what happens to them ultimately also ends up truck cling trickling down. >> income 15% of their income. >> laura: what if they paid 90%. would that solve our economic problems? would that create manufacturing jobs in the united states? if all of them paid 90%, let me tell you what it would accomplish, zero. >> they should not be paying 15%. >> laura: ben and dave, thanks so much. in a moment, should it be legal to use your cell phone in your car. there is a new move to back them. you will hear from john stossel about that stossel is next. d up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your stuffy nose.

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>> laura: in the back of the book segment tonight, we have all done it at one time or another. oh, wait, back to the show. we have used our cell phones while driving. i don't use them while hosting. now the national transportation safety board says enough. not only should drivers be barred from using hand held cell phones they shouldn't be allowed to use hands free devices either. as you might imagine our resident libertarian and fox business anchor john stossel is none too happy with that and he joins us from new york. okay, stossel, i'm dying to hear your point of view on this as a talk radio host i see everything as a plot to shut down talk radio, right? because all not all but 80% of my calls on the laura ingraham show come from cell phones on the car. >> do you ask them if they're driving while talking to you. >> laura: no. i don't want to incriminate them so i don't want to ask them. >> it is a distraction. people do die from this and that's terrible. but this conceit that if we

ban something that solves it. that's the problem. and the transportation safety board was even deceitful in its presentation. debra hersman says it's what happens with more than 3,000 people last year lives lost in the blink of an eye. their own data shows it was about 900 times that it was because of cell phones. the others were other distractions. are we going to ban eating cheeseburgers in the car and playing with the radio? that's what i'm the biggest threat. and talking to the kids in the backseat? it's all a distraction. >> laura: no reprimanding the kids. when i was little dad like come on, kids, the back hand back over the seat. you can't be a parent in the car either. but that's what happens when the government decides that there is a problem i'm from the government and i'm here to fix it, right? states are handling this their own ways and again i don't want to minimize. it is very dangerous to text or talk on the phone when you are driving if you are not doing it in the proper way and you cannot text at all when

you are in the car. it is a nightmare. i agree. >> the laws against it often make it worse. one study in four states where it's banned and there was no difference in one of them but in three of the states they found more accidents. and the theory is that because people instead of just texting while they are driving now they are hiding from the cops and they are holding it lower in the car and that increases accidents. so these laws have unintended consequences. >> laura: john, doesn't it also make you wonder at some point soon you will just be able to say text john stossel great job on the show this week, liked the segment on government intrusion, laura. you will be able to voice it all. so pretty short order this whole conversation will be moot. but, nevertheless, i used to work at d.o.t., the department of transportation back in the reagan years. >> i'm so sorry. >> laura: fun, i was a speech writer for the secretary. a lot of regulators with a lot of time on their hands and they have to do stuff so they come out with these proposals. >> this is the kind of thing

they do and, you know, it just -- it doesn't help. it makes it worse often but they always want more laws. >> laura: all right, john. great to see you. merry christmas, happy new year, all that jazz. >> happy shortest dave the year. >> laura: happy winter soltis. i should have known. >> days get longer. >> laura: maybe warmer. instant classic volunteer for job. how does clinton react? we will show you when the factor returns. atisfied with 50% more cash, send it back! i'll be right here, waiting for it. who wouldn't want more cash? [ insects chirping ] i'll take it. i'll make it rain up in here. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? sorry i'll clean this up. shouldn't have made it rain.

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>> finally tonight, no pinheads & patriots. instead, we want to leave you with one of our favorite moments from o'reilly's interview with bill clinton. >> mr. president, we appreciate you coming in. the book is "back to work." i hope you come back. it took you a long time to come in here. >> look, this mortgage thing is ready made for you. really need to figure out what do you think as a good conservative resolution to this. >> i am not a conservative. i'm independent. but we watch everybody. >> but if you look at this whole thing, for 200 years since buildings have been widely owned when you have a building collapse and a mortgage collapse -- >> you can build from that. >> yes. but tell take 10 years, unless you clean up the mortgage mess quicker. you don't have to agree what i said in my book, but we can get this country back to work. >> i believe that. you should suggest to president obama that he appoint me of secretary of housing if he is

re-elected. >> are you running, sir? >> i will tell him tonight! i will call him tonight. >> yeah, i know. he'll be really excited to hear that. merry christmas. pleasure to see you. >> merry christmas. >> and merry christmas to all of you. but before we go, a quick reminder, it is not too late to get a great last-minute christmas gift. if you buy a bill o'reilly dot-com premium membership, you can get the book. it makes a great christmas gift. it if you want information about the ooh riley/miller shows, they make a great gift. and follow me on facebook and twitter. we will continue this conversation there tonight. thank you for watching us tonight. i am laura ingraham, in